For some reason, I got to thinking about the use of the term bleeding heart liberal and decided it was a badge of courage. The term was most likely invented by political strategists who wanted to label people in some offensive way and therefore deride them for their point of view. I would suspect those politicos were closed hearted and unable to understand ideas that didn’t fit into their narrow thinking.
My reason for feeling positive about this Bleeding Heart Liberal label is that having a heart means to me that I am able to love and have compassion. The bleeding part means I feel for others and actually want to help those in need. In my heart I have compassion for those that struggle, suffer, feel loss, are hurt, lonely, and live in fear. In my profession my caring and compassion allow me to work with and counsel those whose lives are a mess.
Yesterday I read about the awful jet fighter plane that crashed into the house in San Diego this week and about the man who lost his wife, a newborn, a sixteen-month-old child and his mother-in-law in that destroyed house and I felt such compassion for his losses. Those losses are more than I can imagine. I thought how will this man every get past all the grief he must feel. I then felt real gratitude for my wife and my life.
The opposite of having a heart are people who have little or no compassion for the suffering of others especially those who think and believe differently. These conservative religious types seem to have little if any sign of an open mind or heart, even thought they claim to be followers of Jesus, a legendary Bleeding Heart Liberal.
Without an open heart, humanity is lost. All wars are heartless acts of ego’s insanity. The war in Iraq started by heartlessness has slaughtered 100,000’s of innocent Iraqis. I feel great sadness for the losses of those who live in that hell we created. Where is the compassion of our nation’s leadership for the Iraqi people? This is the work of the rationalizing mind cut off from the heart.
Yes I am glad to be labeled a Bleeding Heart Liberal because it means I have the courage to live by an open heart, an open mind and to live according to the higher ideals of compassion, caring and kindness. These are the qualities so needed as we move forward as a nation and a planet. The past influences of blocked hearts include greed, lust for power, war making, ego dominance and arrogance must come to an end for the good of all, today and in future generations. Peace and a compassionate world is the higher evolution of humanity.